Selective call receivers (also known as pagers) have been available for several years and the technology used therein is well known. In its basic form, a selective call receiver is a miniature radio receiver that can be carried on a user's person for receiving radio transmitted messages. Each selective call receiver has a unique address, and when that unique address is received, the selective call receiver alerts the user of a following received message. Selective call receivers, then, allow the user carrying the selective call receiver to receive a page providing that user with a message or notice while the user is away from an office or phone. The page may be a simple beep for alerting the user to call a predetermined telephone number for a message. Alternatively, the page may be more complex, for example, a telephone number or an alphanumeric message displayed on the selective call receiver's message display, or stock quotes or news information received from a news and information service for down-loading into a personal computer from the selective call receiver, etc. Selective call receivers also typically include a variety of accessories. For example, an acknowledge circuit might be included on the selective call receiver for sending a signal back to a transmitter to verify that a page has been received. Additionally, selective call receivers may use a speaker, a flashing LED (light emitting diode), and/or a tactile alert such as a vibrator to alert the user of a received page. Additional features can include backlit displays, improved antennas, low battery alert, etc.
Competition in the selective call receiver market demands that additional features be provided, and further that the selective call receivers maintain small form factors. Selective call receivers, for example, are now offered in small form factors that can unobtrusively be carried on a belt, on a wrist as a wristwatch pager, or in a pocket in a thin form factor roughly the size of a credit card (credit card or thin form factor).
Consumer demands for less expensive, smaller selective call receivers have been met, in part, by offering some functions for selective call receivers as accessories and not as a standard part of a purchased selective call receiver. To further reduce costs, designers continually look to methods of reducing costs of features presently available. For example, two common methods of carrying selective call receivers upon a user's person include clipping the selective call receiver to a belt, or connecting the selective call receiver to a lanyard accessory. A simple pin used to hold a clip to the housing can cost ten cents or more. If the cost of such a pin could be reduced to a penny or less while simultaneously offering a lanyard accessory option, then a selective call receiver could be made less expensively. A savings of even a few cents per selective call receiver is substantial considering that millions of selective call receivers are sold each year.
Thus, what is needed is a selective call receiver having a new pin for holding a belt clip to a housing, which pin is substantially reduced in cost while offering an additional feature.